The theory rests on the belief that Mr Gates created the disease as a tool to vaccinate the population, secretly implant people with devices for surveillance and take control of the global health system.

It originates from attempts to link the Mr Gates and the Melinda Gates Foundation to the outbreak, due to a multi-million dollar grant given to the research group by the foundation.

The funding does not prove of suggest that the Gates Foundation knew about the coronavirus outbreak in advance or played a role in causing it.

Only 26 per cent of Republicans identify the conspiracy theory as false while in comparison only to 19 per cent of Democrats said they believe the theory, according to the survey.

In addition, 44 per cent of 2016 Trump voters also said that they believe in the theory, which has been previously identified by fact checkers as false. Neither Fox News or Mr Trump has promoted the theory.